Blade computing system with wireless communication between blades within a blade enclosure

ABSTRACT

A blade computing system is described with a wireless communication between blades. In one embodiment, the system includes a first blade in the enclosure having a radio transceiver to communicate with a radio transceiver of a second blade in the enclosure. The second blade has a radio transceiver to communicate with the radio transceiver of the first blade. A switch in the enclosure communicates with the first blade and the second blade and establishes a connection through the respective radio transceivers between the first blade and the second blade.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of prior InternationalApplication Serial No. PCT/US15/52463, filed 25 Sep. 2015, entitledMicroelectronic Package with Wireless Interconnect by Telesphor Kamgainget al., the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference fullyherein and the priority of which is hereby claimed.

FIELD

The present description relates to communication between blades of acomputing enclosure and in particular to wireless communication withinthe enclosure.

BACKGROUND

Many types of computing, communication, and routing functions areprovided using a blade enclosure filled with blades. The blades mayprovide switching, routing, storage, storage array network access andcomputing functions. A computing blade includes a processor,non-volatile program storage, data interfaces and some amount of localmemory for software or for data storage. A storage blade will likelyinclude the same components but optimized to maximize the storagecapacity and speed of access. Other types of blades are optimized inother ways. For computing and many of the other blade types, most of thecomputer including its operating system and applications are on theblade while the enclosure provides power, cooling, management, andnetworking. The enclosure houses multiple blades so that the enclosureprovides a common infrastructure to support the entire chassis, ratherthan providing each of these on a per server box basis. When the bladesare individually hot-swappable, the blade enclosure may provide morereliable service than high power individual servers.

Blade servers are employed for many tasks that are not best served by asingle autonomous computer, such as web hosting, virtualization, andcluster computing. The blade structure may also be easy to upgrade inspeed, computing power, and storage space by adding more blades orswapping in more powerful blades.

A new family of blade server systems is referred to as microservers.Microservers are designed to provide the types of services enjoyed bybig data at a much lower cost for small to mid-size businesses.Microserver blades consisting of one or more CPUs, a memory, and anEthernet data communications interface are mounted side-by-side in asingle chassis. Backup and redundancy functions can be built in so thatthe failure of one blade does not affect the other and the failed bladecan easily be swapped out.

The blades communicate with each other and any outside connectionthrough a backplane in the blade enclosure. The blade enclosure alsoprovides power, management and other functions. All of the blades areconnected together through the backplane. This single connection is muchsimpler for maintenance and repair than direct communication between theindividual units. A similar architecture is used for some communicationswitching systems, for network storage arrays, and for some medium scaleserver rack systems. For other systems, while each computer module is ona rack beside or near other computer modules, all communications betweenthe modules are through a network switch. System management is alsothrough the same network switch but requires a separate terminal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not by way oflimitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which likereference numerals refer to similar elements.

FIG. 1A is an isometric diagram of a blade-based server system accordingto an embodiment.

FIG. 1B is an isometric diagram of a blade of the blade-based serversystem of FIG. 1A according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a top view diagram of a processor package with a radio andantenna according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a radio chip and related componentsaccording to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a top view diagram of a package with multiple wirelessinterconnects for chip-to-chip communications according to anembodiment.

FIG. 5 is block diagram of a computing system with multiple high speedinterfaces according to an embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a side view diagram of a blade server with communicationthrough a switch according to an embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a side view diagram of a blade server with communicationthrough a switch and directly between adjacent processors according toan embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a side view diagram of a blade server with communicationthrough a switch, directly between adjacent processors, and throughadjacent back side radios according to an embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a computing device incorporating wirelessinterfaces according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For microserver and similar backplane-based systems, there may be nodirect communication between the individual computing or storage units.When all communications go through a shared backplane, the data routingis more complex and has more latency. The larger the number of blades,the greater the routing complexity and the greater the latency.

By reducing the complexity of the backplane and also by reducing thecomplexity of the CPU (Central Processing Unit) packages microserversand similar systems may be made less expensive. As further describedherein, on-demand direct access may be provided to the state of eachmodule or unit. This allows for real time management and monitoring ofoperating conditions, such as temperature, load assignment, powermanagement, etc., This can lead to additional operational cost saving.

As described herein, a high-speed wireless network may be used insidethe chassis of the microserver or any other system with distributedcompute nodes. The wireless network provides for point-to-pointcommunication between the individual nodes or modules (or Systems on aChip (SoCs)). The workload management and power consumption may thenalso be managed in real time without physically laying out a complexnetwork of separate manageability busses, such as SMBUS (SystemManagement Bus), PECI (Platform Environment Control Interface), etc.through all the compute agents.

The wireless interconnects also allows the backplane that is used incurrent microserver boards to be simplified or removed. This can lead tosubstantial cost savings, simpler routing complexity, reduced PCB(Printed Circuit Board) layer count, and simpler data interconnects.With a readily available high speed data interconnect, resources mayalso be reconfigured without using a switch matrix. As an example, a CPUcan use the memory or hard disk on a different board.

FIG. 1A is an isometric diagram of a blade computing system suitable fora microserver or other blade type of device. The server has a mainenclosure 102 which contains twelve, sixteen, or more blades or cards104. The configuration of each blade may be adapted to suit differentuses.

As shown in FIG. 1B, a blade 104 has a central processing unit (CPU) orcontroller 106 on a motherboard 114. The CPU is coupled to high speedmemory such as DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory 108, and a mass memory110 such as a hard disk or solid state drive. As described herein, amillimeter wave radio is attached to the CPU package. Additional radiosmay be attached in other locations on the front or back side of themotherboard. The blade may have more or fewer components and somefunctions may be integrated into the CPU package.

A backplane interface 112 is mounted to the motherboard. This interfaceconnects to the backplane inside the enclosure 102. The backplanecarries power, management and control information, and data connectionsto other blades and external components. The backplane may have a slowsystem management bus, such as SMBus, an Ethernet interface for higherspeed data connections and one or more PCI (Peripheral ComponentInterface) lanes for higher speed data connections. The particularinterface types and speeds may be selected to suit any particularintended application for the system. The enclosure may also have one ormore network switch modules 114 integrated into the enclosure 102 asshown or provided as one or more additional blades.

FIG. 2 is a top view diagram of a microserver (CPU) package 106 with aprocessor 122 attached to a package substrate 120. The package mayinclude a radio in the form of a die 124 on the package substrateconnected through traces on the substrate or in any other way to anantenna 126 on the substrate. The radio die and antenna allow for a highspeed data connection directly from the CPU package to other components.

The packages are discussed herein as being central processing units and,in particular, as server CPUs. However, the techniques andconfigurations described herein may be applied to many different typesof chips for which a high speed communications link would be suitable.In some implementations, the chip may include many different functionssuch as with a SoC (System on a Chip). In other implementations, thechips may be memory, a communications interface hub, a storage device,co-processor or any other desired type of chip. In addition, the twochips may be different so that one may be a CPU and the other may be amemory or a chipset, for example.

Each chip is also connected through the package to a respective radio126. The radio may be formed of a single die or a package with multipledies or using another technique. Each radio is mounted to the packagenear the edge of the package that is near to the other chip. The packagemay include copper traces, lines, or layers to connect particular lands,pads, or solder balls of the chip to the radio die for data and controlsignals. The radio die may also be connected to the chip to providepower to the radio die. Alternatively, the radio die may obtain powerfrom an external source through the package connection to the PCB.

While different frequencies may be used to suit particularimplementations. Millimeter wave and sub-THz frequencies allow for anantenna that is small enough to be integrated on the same package thatis normally used for the chip. The antennas may also be constructedusing the same materials that are used in the fabrication of the packagesubstrate and still exhibit good electrical performance.

In some embodiments, a broadband wireless interconnect may be used. Forexample with a radio operating in a radio frequency range of from100-140 GHz, the size of each antenna including the keep out zone can beas small as 1.25×1.25 mm to 2.5×2.5 mm. The actual antenna may be stillsmaller. Considering a typical server CPU package, more than 30 antennasof 1.25×1.25 mm may be placed along one edge of the package. This wouldallow more than 30 separate links each carrying 40-80 Gb/s each over ashort distance. The separate links may all be used to communicate with asingle second chip or there may be different package antennas placednext to different antennas of the CPU package. This allows the CPUpackage to communicate with different chips using different links.

Wireless interconnects are used as described herein between the CPUs,between the CPU and a switch, and between the CPUs and other chips. Theswitch may demodulate and downconvert all the wireless signals and thenretransmit them. Alternatively, the switch may use direct passband orpassive switching, such as free space reflectors, lenses, and waveguides. Reflectors and other passives may even be attached to the systemboard or to a case or other housing. With millimeter waves, thepropagation is very similar to that of optical propagation withwell-defined propagation paths between the nodes. The waves are highlydirectional but not as sensitive to alignment as is the case with freespace optics. In addition millimeter wave carriers are able to providevery high data rates, such as 160 Gbps or more on a single link, withless power consumption than laser diodes.

Two main components may be used for many of the describedimplementations. Wireless millimeter wave nodes on at least two CPUs orother packages and a wireless switch. The millimeter wave nodes have amillimeter wave radio die and an antenna. The millimeter wave radio diecan be part of a CPU package in the same or a different die from theCPU. The radio may also be in a separate package with a connection tothe CPU or other die. The nodes can be dedicated to a CPU, memory,nonvolatile storage, chipset or any other desired high speed die ordevice. The nodes do not have to be on the same motherboard as theswitch or as each other. One of the two nodes may be on a differentmotherboard or on a chassis component. One advantage of the wirelesscommunications and the switch is that there may also be many more thantwo nodes.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an example of a transceiver or radio chipsystem architecture and connected components that may be used for thewireless interconnect described herein. The transceiver chip may take avariety of other forms and may include additional functions, dependingon the particular implementation. This radio design is provided only asan example. The radio chip 350 is mounted to the package substrate 352to which the primary integrated circuit die or chip 202, 203 is alsomounted as shown in FIG. 1. The substrate 352 is mounted to the PCB ormotherboard. The radio package may include a local oscillator (LO) 302or a connection to an external LO and optionally a switch that allowsthe external LO feed to be used instead of or in addition to theinternal LO. The LO signal may pass an amplifier and multiplier, such asan active doubler 308 and 0/90° quadrature hybrids 310 to drive anupconverter and mixers 314.

The RX (receive) chain 320 may contain a receive antenna 356 in thepackage coupled to a low noise amplifier (LNA) 322 and a widebandbaseband (BB) amplification chain 324 with downconverters 312 for analogto digital conversion. The TX (transmit) chain 340 may include a BBdigital driver chain 342 to the upconverters 314, and a power amplifier(PA) 344 to the transmit antenna 358. There may be multiple transmit andreceive chains to transmit and receive over multiple channelssimultaneously. The various channels may be combined or consolidated indifferent ways, depending on the particular implementation.

The TX and RX chains are both coupled through the substrate to theantenna. There may be a single antenna for TX and RX or there may beseparate RX and TX antennas as shown. The antennas may be designed tohave different radiation patterns to suit different wirelessconnections. In the example of FIG. 2, the first chip's antenna 216 hasa wide beam transmit and receive pattern 330. This may allow the chip tocommunicate with multiple antennas in different locations on themotherboard. The second chip's antenna 218, on the other hand has anarrow beam transmit and receive pattern 332. This allows power to beconcentrated in a single direction for communication with just one otherdevice.

FIG. 4 is a top view diagram of an example of an implementation ofmultiple wireless interconnects on a single microserver package. In thisexample, separate antennas are used to transmit and receive, but it isalso possible to share the antenna between the Tx and the Rx chains. Theantenna size may vary from 1.25×1.25 mm or less to 2.5×2.5 mm or moredepending on the carrier frequency, desired gain, and transmissionrange.

A single integrated circuit chip or die 402 includes both processing andbaseband systems and is mounted to a package 404. The baseband sectionsof the chip are coupled through on package traces 430 to radio chips ordies which are in turn coupled through the package to antennas. In thisexample, the die integrated circuit chip is a CPU for a microserver andis rectangular. There are radio chips on each of the four sides of theCPU. The sides shown as top, left, and bottom in the drawing figure eachhave a respective radio 424, 410, 420 coupled to a respective Tx, Rxantenna pair 426, 412, 422. The side shown as the right side shows fiveradios each connected to a respective antenna pair. The number of radiosand antennas on each side may be determined based on communication rateneeds in each direction.

Very few high speed links may be required on a microserver package. Asingle link is able to deliver data rates in excess of 40 Gb/s across adistance of a few cm. The data rate may still be on the order of 5-10Gb/s for transmission distances of up to 50 cm.

FIG. 4 shows many wireless links implemented on the same side of onepackage. This allows the aggregate data rate to be increased.Alternatively, the data may be sent to different other devices that arein the same general direction. Both the radio chips and the antennas areplaced towards the edge of the package to limit obstructions in theradio path that may come from heat sinks and heat spreaders. In generalthe losses for a copper trace baseband signal are much lower than thelosses through the same copper trace for an RF signal. As a result, theradio chips may be kept very close to the antenna. This limitselectrical signal and power losses due to the RF routing through thesubstrate. The radio chip may be installed onto the package in anymanner desired and may even be embedded in or a part of the substrate.By using multiple radios, the on-package millimeter-wave wirelessinterconnects can be scaled for extremely high data rate applications.This may be useful in systems such as servers and media recording,processing, and editing systems. As shown, multiple links can be puttogether to achieve data-rates close to a Tb/s.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a computing system 500 with multiple highspeed interfaces that may be implemented using the wireless connectionsas described herein. The computing system may be implemented as aserver, microserver, workstation, or other computing device. The systemhas two processors 504, 506 having multiple processing cores althoughmore processors may be used, depending on the particular implementation.The processors are coupled together through a suitable interconnect suchas the wireless interconnect described herein. The processors are eachcoupled to a respective DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) module 508,510 using a suitable connection, such as the wireless connectiondescribed herein. The processors are also each coupled to a PCI(Peripheral Component Interconnect) interface 512, 514. This connectionmay also be wired or wireless.

The PCI interfaces allow for connections to a variety of high speedadditional components such as graphics processors 516 and other highspeed I/O systems for display, storage and I/O. The graphics processordrives a display 518. Alternatively, the graphics processor is core or adie within one or both of the processors. The graphics processor mayalso be coupled to a different interface through a chipset.

The processors are also both coupled to a chipset 502 which provides asingle point of contact for many other interfaces and connections. Theconnection to the chipset may also be wired or wireless, one or both ofthe processors may be connected to the chipset, depending on theimplementation. As shown, a processor 504 may have a wireless connectionto one or more processors 506, memory 508, peripheral components 512,and a chipset 502. These connections may all be wireless as suggested bythe multiple radio and antennas of FIG. 4. Alternatively, some of theseconnections may be wired. The processor may have multiple wireless linksto the other processor. Similarly the chipset 502 may have wirelessconnections to one or more of the processors as well as to the variousperipheral interfaces as shown.

The chipset is coupled to USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface 520 whichmay provide ports for connections to a variety of other devicesincluding a user interface 534. The chipset may be connected to SATA(Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) interfaces 522, 524 which mayprovide ports for mass storage 536 or other devices. The chipset may beconnected to other high speed interfaces such as a SAS (Serial AttachedSmall computer serial interface) interface 526 with ports for additionalmass storage 528, additional PCI interfaces 530 and communicationsinterfaces 532, such as Ethernet, or any other desired wired or wirelessinterface. The described components are all mounted to one or moreboards and cards to provide the described connections.

FIG. 6 is a side view diagram of a blade server system, such as amicroserver. The same approach as shown here may be adapted to storagearrays, communication blades, Rack-Scale-Architecture (RSA), and othersimilar types of systems. The system 200 has a blade enclosure 202 withan internal backplane 204. The backplane connects to each blade. Thereare five blades 206-1, 206-2, 206-3, 206-4, 206-5, installed in theenclosure and connected to the backplane. This is provided as anillustration, there may be more or fewer blades, depending on theimplementation.

In this example, each blade includes a CPU package 210 with a wirelessinterface 212 as shown in FIG. 2, a high speed memory 214, and a massmemory 216. Alternatively, the radio may be located in a differentposition or on a different package or in its own package. Each blade isbuilt on a motherboard with an electrical connection 208 to thebackplane. While this connection is shown as a simple line, there may bemany different types of connections, each with multiple links, channels,or lanes, such as SMBus, PCI-E, Ethernet, and power. The backplane isconnected to each blade and allows the blades to communicate with eachother for task distribution and data management. The backplane alsoinclude an external I/O (Input/Output) interface 220 to connect theblades and the enclosure to external equipment.

The enclosure also includes a wireless router or switch 224 in theenclosure with multiple antennas 226-1, 226-2, 226-3, 226-4. Eachantenna communicates with one or more blades through the respectiveblade wireless interface 212. The switch routes data and control signalsto and from each of the blades. While the switch 224 is shown aspositioned in a single location, the antennas and optionally componentsof the switch may be distributed throughout the enclosure to locationsthat are easily accessible by a respective blade. The wirelessinterfaces and the switch provide a data channel that is independent ofthe backplane and which does not require any direct wiring to a blade.If a blade is shut down, removed, or replaced, there is no mechanicalconnection required to enable the wireless connection.

In some embodiments radio wave reflectors may be used in the enclosureto guide the signal on a path around any obstructions within theenclosure. The radio connection paths may be reconfigured with a changein the active blades. This allows some communication links to bede-activated and used to establish redundant links to other nodes. Linksmay also be aggregated to increase data rates and shut down to reducepower consumption. The switch node 224 may add additional capabilitiesto the system. It may have multiple antennas to enable many simultaneouschannels with a single CPU. The switch node may perform the switchingthrough a wired connection, through a special control channel, or in thepassband at millimeter wave. Using the passband reduces the powerconsumption required by the modulators, demodulators and RF (radiofrequency) amplifiers. Such a system may be implemented in a mannersimilar to a full optical network switching system.

The switch 224 serves to introduce one or more pico-cells inside theenclosed chassis of the microserver to monitor and manage itsperformance. The pico-cell operates at mm-wave frequencies. It has amain hub (a.k.a. mini tower) that can handle relatively high data rates.Each microserver unit may also have a low speed wireless link andcommunicate directly with the main hub.

The switch 224 may also be coupled to the backplane to control thepowering on or off of the wireless links and to control thecommunication links. Alternatively all of the control, status, andsystem management may be controlled through the wireless links. When ablade has a data stream to send to another blade, the switch is able toreceive a request from the blade. The request may be a push or a ping onthe shared backplane or it may be the setting of a line to a high or lowvalue. The switch then sends a command to the other blade to activateits radio transceiver that corresponds to the requesting blade. In thisway, the switch activates the wireless data link. The antennas of theswitch may be configured to transmit and receive between two or threeblades simultaneously so that each channel may be used for any one ofthe blades within its transmit range. This provides multiple possiblelinks between any two blades. Steerable beams, using for example aphased array antenna, or switchable beams, using for example multiplediscrete antennas, may also be used by the switch to more preciselydirect power to a particular blade. The switch may determine how many ofthe links to establish for each communication session. The multiplepaths allow the connection paths to be reconfigured. This allows somecommunication links to be de-activated and used to establish redundantlinks to other nodes. The links may then be aggregated to increase datarates and shut down to reduce power consumption.

The switch may also deactivate any one or more of the linksindependently of each other link. The blades may request that a link betorn down or the switch may detect that the link has been inactive forsome period of time and therefore request that the radio transceivers bepowered down. By turning off the transceivers when possible, the systemmay reduce power consumption, heat dissipation and radio interferencewithin the blade enclosure.

In another example, the switch is coupled to an ACPI (AdvanceConfiguration and Power Interface) component chip on the chassis. Thiscomponent determines and controls power consumption for each of theblades as well as clock rates. When a blade enters a low power mode thenthe switch can determine this from the ACPI component and command thatradio transceivers be deactivated. Similarly, when a blade is switchedto an active or high speed state the radio transceivers of that bladeand those that connect to that blade may be activated.

The switch not only manages the wireless links with each blade but alsoacts as a relay or repeater. The switch routes the data stream receivedfrom each source blade to the intended other destination blade using thecorresponding link and an appropriate assigned path. The switch mayemploy passive switching using a passive waveguide network, activereflectors or other techniques. Alternatively, the switch may be anactive repeater capable of buffering the data streams, remodulating,amplifying, and any other desired functions.

The switch may also receive status and activity information from theACPI or directly from each blade. In this way the switch is able todetermine which ones of the blade transceivers are transmitting. Thisinformation may also be used to determine whether radio links are to beactivated or deactivated.

The configuration of the single central switch 224 provides additionalflexibility if there are multiple wireless links from the switch to eachblade. This allows the switch to then dedicate each link to a differentblade or to aggregate the links so that higher data rates are providedbetween one pair of blades than between another pair of blades. Theswitch may be made to determine suitable data rates and channelallocations for each blade.

FIG. 7 is a diagram of an alternative blade server system 300 in whichthe blades communicate wirelessly directly with nearby blades providingmore communication channels. The system has an external enclosure 302with a backplane 304 connected to multiple blades 306-1, 306-2, 306-3,306-4, 306-5. The blades are similar to those described above andinclude a CPU 310, a volatile memory 314, and a mass memory 316. Theconfiguration of the blades may be modified to suit different uses andthe blades may be different from each other for specialized applicationsas described above.

In order to provide direct communication there are two differentpossible independent additional wireless channels. In addition to thewireless interface 312 attached to each CPU package 310, some or all ofthe blades may include an additional radio 330-1, 330-2, 330-3, 330-4 onthe backside of the blades. As shown, the blades are based on amotherboard with a top or front side and a bottom or back side. Thecomponents, processors, memory, data interfaces, power regulators etc.are all mounted on the front side. This means that the radio is alsomounted on the front side. The motherboard limits the radio to a maximumpossible hemisphere or 180° of transmit and receive directions. A radioon the back side allows for the other hemisphere or 180° of possibletransmit and receive directions. The second radio also provides for atleast one more full data channel, doubling the data rate over that ofthe single front side radio.

A second additional wireless channel is provided by allowing the bladesto communicate not only with the switch but also with the adjacent ornearby blades. While in the previous embodiment all of the blades arefacing the same direction, in this embodiment, the blades are installedback-to-back and face-to-face. This requires only small modification tothe backplane, reversing the direction of every other socket and a smallmodification to every other receiving slot to accommodate the blade inreverse position. As a result the odd-numbered blades 1, 3, 5, . . . arefacing to the right and the even numbered blades 2, 4, 6, . . . arefacing to the left. In other words, the blades are paired so that eachblade is facing one other blade front side to front side.

The face-to-face configuration means that the CPU packages andassociated radios of each blade pair are facing each other. These radiosare in each other's line of sight and can communicate directly withoutthe switch 324. This communication may be done using an additionalradio. In this case, the radio 312-1 represents two radios. The firstradio has a wide upward antenna beam to communicate with the switchantenna 326-1 above. The second radio has a narrow lateral beam tocommunicate directly with adjacent blade. Since the blades are closetogether in the enclosure and the radios are in the same or very closeto the same position, the direct wireless link is very short and withina direct line of sight of the radios on each die. In the event that theenclosure has cooling, bracing, wiring or other structures between theblades, the enclosure may be adapted by providing an opening for theradio communications between blades. Alternatively, there may be asingle beam that is steered to either the switch or another blade usinga phased array antenna. As another alternative, a single radio die maybe coupled to two different antennas, one directed to the switch and theother directed to the adjacent blade.

Another way for the two blades to communicate with each other is for theantennas of each CPU package radio 312-1, 312-2 to have a wider transmitand receive beam. An appropriate antenna is provided so that a singlesignal is received both at the switch antenna 326-1 and the adjacentblade radio 312-2. In this case, the dotted line represents twodifferent logical channels but the same physical radio signal. The datapackets between the three nodes may be identified with packet headers,modulation formats, or other characteristics so that the receiver candetermine whether a packet is directed to the switch or the adjacentblade. This approach has an advantage of less cost and hardwarecomplexity, but the amount of data is limited by the single data channelof the one radio. For a more flexible approach, the CPU package may havemultiple radios or radio channels to increase the total possible amountof data that may be transmitted. The radios may each have wide transmitand receive antennas so that all of the radio may communicate eitherwith the switch or with the adjacent blade. In this way the blade maysend one or more of the signals to the switch and one or more of thesignals also to the adjacent blade simultaneously.

There is also a communications channel between the adjacent pairs ofblades, that is between the back-to-back blades. As shown, each bladeoptionally has a back-side radio 330. Two back-to-back blades haveadjacent back side radios 330-1, 330-2 facing each other. This allowsfor a direct communications path with a line of sight channel betweenthe two blades that does not include the switch. The radios may have oneor more channels for these back side radios.

FIG. 8 is a diagram of an alternative blade server system 400 in whichall of the blades face the same direction as in FIG. 6 within theenclosure. However, at least some of the blades also have a back sideradio for communication with the adjacent blade. This blade serversystem may be a microserver or a larger server system, a storage array,communication router, Rack-Scale-Architecture (RSA), and other similartypes of systems. The system 400 has a blade enclosure 402 with aninternal backplane 404. The backplane connects to each blade. There arefive blades 406-1, 406-2, 406-3, 406-4, 406-5, installed in theenclosure and connected to the backplane. More or fewer blades may beused depending on the implementation.

In this example, each blade includes a CPU package 410 with a wirelessinterface 412, a high speed memory 414, and a mass memory 416. Theplacement of the radio is provided as an example and different positionsmay be used on a different package or in its own package. The bladesconnect to a backplane for power and optionally for data, control,system management, and other purposes. The backplane also providesexternal I/O (Input/Output) access through an external interface 420.

A wireless router or switch 424 in the enclosure with multiple antennas426-1, 426-2, 426-3, 426-4 communicates with the blades through therespective blade wireless interfaces 412. The switch routes data andcontrol signals to and from each of the blades. While the switch 224 isshown as positioned in a single location, the antennas and optionallycomponents of the switch may be distributed throughout the enclosure tolocations that are easily accessible by a respective blade. In additionto the switch connection, the blades are also able to communicatedirectly using back side radios 430.

For a simple direct communication, a CPU or front side radio 412 is ableto communicate with the back side radio 430 of the adjacent blade. Thisis shown, for example, as the first, third and fourth blade front sideradios 412-1, 412-3, 413-4 communicating directly with the second,fourth, and fifth blade back side radios 430-2, 430-4, 430-5,respectively. These front side radios may also communicate with theswitch using any one or more of the techniques and structures describedabove with respect to FIG. 7.

The systems of FIGS. 7 and 8 may also provide additional communicationpaths as shown in FIG. 8. A first additional path is through an aperture432 in the blade motherboard. This aperture allows two back side radios430-2, 430-3 to communicate directly when the blades are all alignedfront-to-back. As shown the second blade's back side radio 430-2 mayalso be able to communicate with the first blade's front side radio412-1. This may be done, for example by providing for two antennas onthe back side radio 430-2 one directed to each of the other radios.Another additional communication path is through a blade's motherboard.The signals received by the back side radio 430-2 may be electricallycommunicated to the front side radio 412-2 of the same blade. Thiscommunication may be through wiring within the motherboard or through adedicated electrical connection.

FIG. 9 illustrates a computing device 100 in accordance with anotherimplementation. Such a computing device represents anotherimplementation of a blade as described above. The figure may also serveas a functional representation of a fully functional blade server. Thecomputing device 100 houses a board 2. The board 2 may include a numberof components, including but not limited to a processor 4, at least onecommunication chip 6, and a millimeter wave radio 26. The processor 4 isphysically and electrically coupled to the board 2. In someimplementations the at least one communication chip 6 and radio 26 arealso physically and electrically coupled to the board 2. In furtherimplementations, the radio 26 is part of a processor package.

Depending on its applications, computing device 11 may include othercomponents that may or may not be physically and electrically coupled tothe board 2. These other components include, but are not limited to,volatile memory (e.g., DRAM) 8, non-volatile memory (e.g., ROM) 9, flashmemory (not shown), a graphics processor 12, a digital signal processor(not shown), a crypto processor (not shown), a chipset 14, an antenna16, a display 18 such as a touchscreen display, a touchscreen controller20, a battery 22, an audio codec (not shown), a video codec (not shown),a power amplifier 24, a speaker 30, a camera 32, and a mass storagedevice (such as hard disk drive) 10, compact disk (CD) (not shown),digital versatile disk (DVD) (not shown), and so forth). Thesecomponents may be connected to the system board 2, mounted to the systemboard, or combined with any of the other components.

The communication chip 6 enables wireless and/or wired communicationsfor the transfer of data to and from the computing device 11 through anantenna 16. The term “wireless” and its derivatives may be used todescribe circuits, devices, systems, methods, techniques, communicationschannels, etc., that may communicate data through the use of modulatedelectromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. The term does notimply that the associated devices do not contain any wires, although insome embodiments they might not. The communication chip 6 may implementany of a number of wireless or wired standards or protocols, includingbut not limited to Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 family), WiMAX (IEEE 802.16family), IEEE 802.20, long term evolution (LTE), Ev-DO, HSPA+, HSDPA+,HSUPA+, EDGE, GSM, GPRS, CDMA, TDMA, DECT, Bluetooth, Ethernetderivatives thereof, as well as any other wireless and wired protocolsthat are designated as 3G, 4G, 5G, and beyond. The computing device 11may include a plurality of communication chips 6. For instance, a firstcommunication chip 6 may be dedicated to shorter range wirelesscommunications such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and a second communicationchip 6 may be dedicated to longer range wireless communications such asGPS, EDGE, GPRS, CDMA, WiMAX, LTE, Ev-DO, and others.

In some implementations, any one or more of the components may beconfigured on a blade and adapted to use the millimeter wave wirelessconnections described herein through the millimeter wave radio 26. Thefeatures of the system of FIG. 9 may be embodied in one or more bladesor in a combination of blades and blade enclosure. For example, a blademay carry multiple processors. Any blade or blade system may include anyone or more of the peripherals shown in FIG. 9. The term “processor” mayrefer to any device or portion of a device that processes electronicdata from registers and/or memory to transform that electronic data intoother electronic data that may be stored in registers and/or memory.

In various implementations, the computing device 11 may be a desktopcomputer, a server, a set-top box, an entertainment control unit, or adigital video recorder. In further implementations, the computing device11 may be any other electronic device that processes data.

Embodiments may be implemented as a part of one or more memory chips,controllers, CPUs (Central Processing Unit), microchips or integratedcircuits interconnected using a motherboard, an application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC), and/or a field programmable gate array(FPGA).

References to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, “example embodiment”,“various embodiments”, etc., indicate that the embodiment(s) sodescribed may include particular features, structures, orcharacteristics, but not every embodiment necessarily includes theparticular features, structures, or characteristics. Further, someembodiments may have some, all, or none of the features described forother embodiments.

In the following description and claims, the term “coupled” along withits derivatives, may be used. “Coupled” is used to indicate that two ormore elements co-operate or interact with each other, but they may ormay not have intervening physical or electrical components between them.

As used in the claims, unless otherwise specified, the use of theordinal adjectives “first”, “second”, “third”, etc., to describe acommon element, merely indicate that different instances of likeelements are being referred to, and are not intended to imply that theelements so described must be in a given sequence, either temporally,spatially, in ranking, or in any other manner.

The drawings and the forgoing description give examples of embodiments.Those skilled in the art will appreciate that one or more of thedescribed elements may well be combined into a single functionalelement. Alternatively, certain elements may be split into multiplefunctional elements. Elements from one embodiment may be added toanother embodiment. For example, orders of processes described hereinmay be changed and are not limited to the manner described herein.Moreover, the actions of any flow diagram need not be implemented in theorder shown; nor do all of the acts necessarily need to be performed.Also, those acts that are not dependent on other acts may be performedin parallel with the other acts. The scope of embodiments is by no meanslimited by these specific examples. Numerous variations, whetherexplicitly given in the specification or not, such as differences instructure, dimension, and use of material, are possible. The scope ofembodiments is at least as broad as given by the following claims.

The following examples pertain to further embodiments. The variousfeatures of the different embodiments may be variously combined withsome features included and others excluded to suit a variety ofdifferent applications. Some embodiments pertain to an apparatus thatincludes a blade enclosure, a first blade in the enclosure having aradio transceiver to communicate with a radio transceiver of a secondblade in the enclosure, the second blade having a radio transceiver tocommunicate with the radio transceiver of the first blade, and a switchin the enclosure to communicate with the first blade and the secondblade and to establish a connection through the respective radiotransceivers between the first blade and the second blade.

In further embodiments the switch establishes the connection byactivating the respective radio transceivers.

In further embodiments the first blade comprises a processor packageincluding a processor and the radio transceiver.

In further embodiments the first blade comprises a motherboard having afront side and a back side and a processor, wherein the radiotransceiver and the processor are attached to the front side, the firstblade further comprising a second radio transceiver attached to the backside of the motherboard to communicate with another blade withoutcommunicating with the switch.

In further embodiments the second blade comprises a motherboard having afront side and a back side, wherein the radio transceiver and theprocessor are attached to the front side, the second blade furthercomprising a second radio transceiver attached to the back side of themotherboard, wherein the back side of the first blade faces the backside of the second blade in the enclosure, wherein the back sidetransceiver of the first blade communicates with the back sidetransceiver of the second blade.

In further embodiments wherein the switch has a radio transceiver tocommunicate through the respective radio transceivers of the first andthe second package.

In further embodiments the switch has a first radio transceiver tocommunicate with the first package and a second radio transceiver tocommunicate with the second package and wherein the connection betweenthe first package and the second package is through the switch.

In further embodiments the connection between the first package and thesecond package is through a third package, the third package having afirst transceiver to communicate directly with the first package and asecond transceiver to communicate directly with the second package andwherein the switch establishes the connection by assigning a paththrough the third package.

In further embodiments the radio transceiver of the first packagecomprises a steerable beam to communicate with either the second packageor the third package by steering the beam and wherein the switchestablishes the connection by assigning a steering of the beam.

In further embodiments the steerable beam comprises a phased arrayantenna.

Further embodiments include a backplane in the enclosure coupled to thefirst and the second blade and wherein the first and the second bladecommunicate through the backplane.

Further embodiments include an aperture defined by and through themotherboard proximate the second transceiver and wherein the secondtransceiver transmits through the aperture to a third blade withoutcommunicating through the switch.

Some embodiments pertain to a method that includes receiving a requestto connect from a first blade having a radio transceiver at a switch,sending a request to connect from the switch to a second blade having aradio transceiver, the first blade, the second blade, and the switchbeing housed in a blade server enclosure, and establishing a connectionby the switch through the respective radio transceivers between thefirst blade and the second blade.

In further embodiments establishing the connection comprises activatingthe respective radio transceivers by the switch.

In further embodiments the switch has a first radio transceiver tocommunicate with the first blade and a second radio transceiver tocommunicate with the second blade and wherein the connection between thefirst blade and the second blade is through the switch.

In further embodiments wherein establishing a connection comprisesestablishing a connection by assigning a path through a third blade, thethird blade being carried by the system board and having a firsttransceiver to communicate directly with the first blade and a secondtransceiver to communicate directly with the second blade.

In further embodiments wherein receiving and sending comprise receivingthrough a backplane from the first blade and sending through thebackplane to the second blade.

Some embodiments pertain to a blade of a blade server that includes amotherboard, a processor attached to the motherboard, a memory attachedto the motherboard and coupled to the processor, a backplane interfaceattached to the blade to connect to a backplane of a blade enclosure,and a millimeter wave radio transceiver coupled to the processor tocommunicate with a millimeter wave radio transceiver of a second bladein the blade enclosure.

In further embodiments the radio transceiver and the processor areattached to a front side of the motherboard, the blade furthercomprising a second radio transceiver attached to a back side of themotherboard to communicate with another blade without communicating witha switch.

In further embodiments the first blade comprises a processor packageincluding the processor and the radio transceiver.

1. An apparatus comprising: a blade enclosure: a first blade in theenclosure having a radio transceiver to communicate with a radiotransceiver of a second blade in the enclosure; the second blade havinga radio transceiver to communicate with the radio transceiver of thefirst blade; and a switch in the enclosure to communicate with the firstblade and the second blade and to establish a connection through therespective radio transceivers between the first blade and the secondblade.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the switch establishes theconnection by activating the respective radio transceivers.
 3. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the first blade comprises a processorpackage including a processor and the radio transceiver.
 4. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the first blade comprises a motherboardhaving a front side and a back side and a processor, wherein the radiotransceiver and the processor are attached to the front side, the firstblade further comprising a second radio transceiver attached to the backside of the motherboard to communicate with another blade withoutcommunicating with the switch.
 5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein thesecond blade comprises a motherboard having a front side and a backside, wherein the radio transceiver and the processor are attached tothe front side, the second blade further comprising a second radiotransceiver attached to the back side of the motherboard, wherein theback side of the first blade faces the back side of the second blade inthe enclosure, wherein the back side transceiver of the first bladecommunicates with the back side transceiver of the second blade.
 6. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the switch has a radio transceiver tocommunicate through the respective radio transceivers of the first andthe second package.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the switch hasa first radio transceiver to communicate with the first package and asecond radio transceiver to communicate with the second package andwherein the connection between the first package and the second packageis through the switch.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein theconnection between the first package and the second package is through athird package, the third package having a first transceiver tocommunicate directly with the first package and a second transceiver tocommunicate directly with the second package and wherein the switchestablishes the connection by assigning a path through the thirdpackage.
 9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the radio transceiver ofthe first package comprises a steerable beam to communicate with eitherthe second package or the third package by steering the beam and whereinthe switch establishes the connection by assigning a steering of thebeam.
 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the steerable beam comprisesa phased array antenna.
 11. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprisinga backplane in the enclosure coupled to the first and the second bladeand wherein the first and the second blade communicate through thebackplane.
 12. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the first blade furthercomprises an aperture defined by and through the motherboard proximatethe second transceiver and wherein the second transceiver transmitsthrough the aperture to a third blade without communicating through theswitch.
 13. A method comprising: receiving a request to connect from afirst blade having a radio transceiver at a switch; sending a request toconnect from the switch to a second blade having a radio transceiver,the first blade, the second blade, and the switch being housed in ablade server enclosure; and establishing a connection by the switchthrough the respective radio transceivers between the first blade andthe second blade.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein establishing theconnection comprises activating the respective radio transceivers by theswitch.
 15. The method of claim 13, wherein the switch has a first radiotransceiver to communicate with the first blade and a second radiotransceiver to communicate with the second blade and wherein theconnection between the first blade and the second blade is through theswitch.
 16. The method of claim 13, wherein establishing a connectioncomprises establishing a connection by assigning a path through a thirdblade, the third blade being carried by the system board and having afirst transceiver to communicate directly with the first blade and asecond transceiver to communicate directly with the second blade. 17.The method of claim 13, wherein receiving and sending comprise receivingthrough a backplane from the first blade and sending through thebackplane to the second blade.
 18. A blade of a blade server comprising:a motherboard; a processor attached to the motherboard; a memoryattached to the motherboard and coupled to the processor; a backplaneinterface attached to the blade to connect to a backplane of a bladeenclosure; and a millimeter wave radio transceiver coupled to theprocessor to communicate with a millimeter wave radio transceiver of asecond blade in the blade enclosure.
 19. The apparatus of claim 18,wherein the radio transceiver and the processor are attached to a frontside of the motherboard, the blade further comprising a second radiotransceiver attached to a back side of the motherboard to communicatewith another blade without communicating with a switch.
 20. Theapparatus of claim 18, wherein the first blade comprises a processorpackage including the processor and the radio transceiver.